Where does Merck & CIE rank among US patent assignees?

According to USPTO PatentsView (2015–2025 granted utility patents), Merck & CIE ranks #17,894 of 49,997 assignees by granted-patent volume, the same sort as the companies listing and top-holders ranking. See /methodology/#corpus-placement.

How many patents does Merck & CIE hold?

Merck & CIE holds 16 US utility patents granted between 2015 and 2024, spanning 6 technology areas.

What is Merck & CIE's Innovation Score?

Merck & CIE has an Innovation Score of 34.7 out of 100 (49th percentile of the corpus). This composite metric weighs portfolio volume (40%), grant velocity (20%), technology breadth (25%), and claim depth (15%).

What technology areas does Merck & CIE focus on?

Merck & CIE's top technology area is A61K (Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes) with 14 patents, ranking #1,619 of 7,163 assignees active in that subclass. Grants appear in 6 CPC subclasses total.

Is Merck & CIE's patent grant rate increasing or decreasing?

Merck & CIE's recent grant velocity is -40% compared to the prior five-year period (grant years, not application filing dates). Grant activity has slowed relative to earlier years.

What does claim depth mean for Merck & CIE's patents?

Merck & CIE's patents average 22.4 claims each. This is an aggregate descriptive count from the grant record; it does not establish claim scope, legal strength, enforceability, or design-around risk.

How is the Merck & CIE patent data sourced?

All patent data comes from USPTO PatentsView, a public research dataset maintained by the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering US granted utility patents from 2015 to 2025.

USPTO 2015–2025 USPTO PatentsView Foreign Corporation

Merck & CIE

USPTO PatentsView assignee record - 16 granted patents across 6 technology areas, recorded in grant years 2015–2024. Grant-trend analysis is cross-referenced to USPTO Patent Public Search; it does not measure application filings, current R&D, or legal strength. Primary class: A61K (Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes).

Compiled by PlainPatent · May 15, 2026

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Explore the portfolio See the ranking

The verdict

According to USPTO PatentsView, Merck ranks #17,894 of 49,997 tracked US assignees by granted-patent volume, with 16 patents across 6 technology areas.

#17,894
of 49,997 US assignees by volume: 49th percentile
by Innovation Score (34.7/100): 22.4
avg claims per patent: -40%
grant velocity, last 5 yrs

USPTO PatentsView assignee plate

Corpus R17894 · Foreign Corporation #17,894 · 16 grants

GRANTS-MICRO · MID-PACK · PHOTO-FINISH · CPC-NARROW · INNOV-THIN · CLAIMS-DENSE · TYPE-FRNCORP · VEL-DOWN · BOOK-FULL

GRANTS-MICRO 16 grants
MID-PACK #17,894/49,997
PHOTO-FINISH Megvii (BEIJING)…
CPC-NARROW A61K · 6 areas
INNOV-THIN 34.7/100
CLAIMS-DENSE 22.4 claims/avg
TYPE-FRNCORP Foreign Corp
VEL-DOWN -40% vel
BOOK-FULL 10/10 fields

Nearest grant-volume peer: Megvii (BEIJING) Technology Co., Ltd. (±0 grants)

Instrument codes from this assignee’s USPTO PatentsView grant sheet: volume band, corpus rank, photo-finish peer, lead CPC, Innovation Score, claim depth, assignee type, velocity, and book completeness. Not a USPTO rating of patent strength.

How Merck’s 34.7 Innovation Score adds up

The same four weighted components behind every Innovation Score on PlainPatent: portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth.

Volume 9.8 pts (28%) Velocity 2.9 pts (8%) Breadth 8.7 pts (25%) Claim depth 13.4 pts (39%)

Qualcomm Incorporated · highest

85
Merck & CIE · this assignee

35
3D Lighting… · lowest

7

What this shows Merck's Innovation Score is 34.7/100 (49th percentile of the PatentsView-derived corpus). The chart places that score against the nearest Innovation Score peers plus corpus poles, not a reprint of the volume ranking.

Does more volume mean deeper claims for Merck?

Each dot is one of Merck’s 8 nearest volume peers (same corpus rank neighbourhood as the chart above), placed by total granted patents (horizontal) against average claims per patent (vertical). Merck’s own 22.4 claims/patent is ABOVE the 15.5 median for these volume peers. More thorough claims than most filers at this scale, not just more of them.

Merck vs its 8 nearest volume peers: granted patents vs average claims per patent. Source: USPTO PatentsView.

Where Merck's grants concentrate

Merck & CIE is a focused PatentsView assignee: 6 CPC subclasses with 87.5% of grants classified under A61K (Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes). Peak complete grant year is 2019 (4 grants) versus a trough of 1 in 2015. By volume, Merck sits between Megvii (BEIJING) Technology Co., Ltd. and MH Acoustics, LLC.

Merck's three-year grant acceleration

Merck & CIE shows 3 grants in 2022–2024 against only 7 in 2019–2021. That prior window is too thin for a growth multiple (rename and spin-out assignees look artificially high when the baseline is near zero), so PlainPatent withholds a ranked acceleration claim here.

Megvii (Beijing)…

16
Melfas

16
Mems Drive (Nanji…

16
Mercer University

16
Merits Health Pro…

16
Metail

16
Meyer Burger (Ger…

16
MH Acoustics

16
Merck & CIE ◀

16

What this shows Merck holds 16 patents at rank #17,877, shown against the 8 assignees closest to it in grant volume rather than the industry's largest filers.

Companies ranked near Merck

By rank, the assignees closest to #17,877 in granted patent volume.

Leaders in A61K (Preparations FOR Medical)

Other assignees with the most granted patents in Merck's primary technology class.

Merck's Innovation Score vs. every tracked assignee

Composite of portfolio volume, grant velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth (0–100)

35 49th percentile higher than 49% of 49,997 US assignees

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US assignees. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USPTO PatentsView, PlainPatent Innovation Score · 2015–2025

USPTO utility patent grants by year · 2015–2024

Grants by year

Teal-shaded recent years (2020–present) versus the 2015–2019 baseline. Full figures in the table below.

View data table

Merck & CIE patent grants by year, 2015–2025
Year	Patents Granted	Share of Period
2015	1	6.3%
2016	3	18.8%
2017	1	6.3%
2018	1	6.3%
2019	4	25.0%
2020	1	6.3%
2021	2	12.5%
2022	1	6.3%
2024	2	12.5%

Which technologies does Merck & CIE patent most?

A61K - Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes 14

C07B - General Methods OF Organic CHEMISTRY; Apparatus Therefor 11

C07D - Heterocyclic Compounds 11

A61P - Specific Therapeutic Activity OF Chemical Compounds OR Medicinal Preparations 8

G01N - Investigating OR Analysing Materials BY Determining Their Chemical OR Physical Properties 5

Y02P - Climate Change Mitigation Technologies IN THE Production OR Processing OF Goods 2

Top 6 of 6 technology areas

More on this record

Data Source

USPTO PatentsView, US granted patents 2015–2025

View all rankings → How is Innovation Score calculated?

What to do with this data

Merck & CIE's patent record in context - here's where to go next.

Merck & CIE's lead technology class is A61K (Preparations FOR Medical, Dental OR Toiletry Purposes), 87.5% of its portfolio - see every assignee active in that class. Explore A61K
Ranked #17,894 of 49,997 tracked assignees by patent volume - see the full leaderboard. See the ranking
Compare Merck & CIE against Megvii (BEIJING) Technology Co., Ltd., an assignee filing at a similar volume. Compare portfolios
Innovation Score of 34.7/100 blends volume, velocity, technology breadth, and claim depth. How it's calculated

Figures reflect USPTO PatentsView grant data through May 2026; pending applications not yet granted are not counted.

Data sourced from USPTO PatentsView - official U.S. government patent data. See our methodology for computation details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainPatent

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from the USPTO PatentsView database. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sources used on this page

USPTO PatentsView - the disambiguated bulk patent-grant, assignee, and CPC data this page's figures are derived from. patentsview.org
Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) - the joint USPTO/EPO classification scheme used to group patents by technology area. cooperativepatentclassification.org
USPTO Patent Public Search - the official interface to verify the status of any individual patent. ppubs.uspto.gov

Compiled by PlainPatent, US Patent Intelligence Editorial Process · May 15, 2026

Every figure on PlainPatent is rendered directly from USPTO source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on USPTO source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 2026.